Gallon Environment Letter – the daily edition – a policy letter from the Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment

US beats China in clean energy trade

Clean energy industry analysts have been surprised by a study released this week by The Pew Charitable Trusts, based in Washington DC, indicates that, in 2011, the US had an advantage over China in trade of solar, wind and energy smart technologies. The minimum trade advantage, expressed as a percentage, was in solar technologies(32%) and the highest was in energy smart technologies (214%), which includes electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, advanced metering equipment, and LEDs. Total US trade surplus over China in the clean energy sector was $1.63 billion. Of this, solar technol0gies contributed the mopst in absolute terms.

The data for the report were compiled for Pew by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The ngo drew a number of conclusions from the data, among which the following caught GallonDaily’s eye:

U.S. firms have an advantage resulting from national leadership in innovation and entrepreneurship.

U.S. companies are more active overseas than are there Chinese counterparts.

China’s strength is more narrowly based on assembly and high-volume manufacturing

Uncertainties surrounding U.S. clean energy policies are likely to have the greatest impact on domestic manufacturing in the clean energy industry.

In other words, government policies can play a major role in facilitating positive growth and trade balances in North America’s clean energy sector.